MADRID (AFP) - Spain detained Moroccan national Abdeladim Akoudad on suspicion he belongs to an Islamic terrorist group believed involved in the killing of a controversial Dutch filmmaker.
Judge Baltasar Garzon's move came four days after Spain's interior ministry said two men detained in the Netherlands during a sweep against suspected Islamic radicals had links with Akoudad, already held in Spain over last year's Casablanca bombings having been arrested in Barcelona in October 2003.
The Dutch-based Islamic cell is believed to have been behind the November 2 killing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh.
According to Spanish ministry sources, the name of one unnamed Islamic radical suspect whom Dutch authorities detained last week in connection with the Van Gogh assassination appears on a document found on Akoudad when he was arrested.
Spain detained Akoudad last year at Morocco's request as Rabat investigates the May 16, 2003 blasts in Casablanca which killed 45 people, including 12 suicide bombers.
The Spanish ministry said one suspect picked up by Dutch police and believed to have links to Akoudad is understood to have travelled to Barcelona last October to contact him but it remains unclear if he succeeded.
Judge Garzon names that suspect as Ismail Akhnikh.
Last week, Spanish interior ministry sources said the Van Gogh suspect had acknowledged knowing Akoudad.
According to Garzon, Akoudad was a "leading" figure in the Islamic group dismantled earlier this month in the wake of the Van Gogh killing. According to the Spanish judge, the filmmaker's alleged killer, Mohammed Bouyeri "was also part" of that cell.
Spanish judicial sources said Garzon had several times interviewed Akoudad in recent months at the behest of Dutch, French, Belgian and German magistrates.
11/16/2004 - 15:14 GMT - AFP